


you lie, but your blush betrays you

by robin_hoods



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, M/M, Saiouma Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 08:49:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15457656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_hoods/pseuds/robin_hoods
Summary: Kokichi is great at telling Shuuichi just how much he likes him. Shuuichi just isn't sure how to tell Kokichi the same without his boyfriend running away.For #51 in the Saiouma Exchange





	you lie, but your blush betrays you

**Author's Note:**

> Hi #51, sorry this is a little late, I was your pinchhitter for this exchange. I really hope you enjoy this, I had a lot of fun writing it. :)

“Guess who, Shumai~?” Two hands clasp firmly over Shuuichi’s eyes. Behind him, Kokichi giggles.

“Hmm,” Shuuichi says out loud, deciding to play along.  He closes his book because he can’t read it now anyway. “Momota-kun, is that you?”

“Bzzt! You’re wrong!” Kokichi laughs again.

“Akamatsu-san, then?”

“Woow! And here I thought Saihara-chan had lost his touch – obviously I am Akamatsu Kaede-chan. Or is that a lie?”

Shuuichi bites his lip as he tries not to laugh. He lifts his hand and pulls one of Kokichi’s hands away from his face. “I’d say it is, Ouma-kun,” he says as he turns his head. Kokichi grins at him and puts his hands behind his head.

“What gave me away, detective?” he says, teasingly.

“Your ‘nishishi’, probably,” Shuuichi says. “Plus, you’re the only one that calls me Shumai.”

“Yep!” Kokichi chirps. “I’m the only one who gets to give my boyfriend cute nicknames!” He sits down on the arm of Shuuichi’s chair and begins to list them off. “Saihara-chan, and Shuu, and Shumai, and—”

On impulse, Shuuichi pulls Kokichi off the arm, and onto his lap. “Does that mean I get to call you Kokichi?” He smiles, and Kokichi’s ears turn red.

“Oh, look at the time!” He jumps off Shuuichi’s lap. “I suddenly remembered I have extremely important supreme leader business to attend to! Gotta run! Bye, Shumai!”

 Shuuichi knows for a fact Kokichi doesn’t carry a watch (apparently, Supreme Leaders are never late, they arrive exactly when they need to). Shuuichi sighs, but he does it fondly. He and Kokichi have been dating for three months now, after dancing around each other for a whole nine months. Well, Kokichi had done the majority of dancing, because Shuuichi had been oblivious to the fact that Kokichi had been _flirting_ with him the whole time.

He still cringes when he remembers the conversation he had with Kaede about Kokichi’s strange behavior. “You do know he’s flirting with you, right?” she had said. “He obviously likes you.”

“He—what now?” Shuuichi said.

She sent him on his way, and after far too much time thinking about it, he realized he’d mistaken his fondness for Kokichi as mere friendship, when he was pretty sure he didn’t feel simultaneously nauseous and excited while spending time with Kaede or Kaito.

Shuuichi’s confession goes something like this:

“I was talking to Akamatsu-san earlier for some advice, and she—”

“Did Saihara-chan _finally_ confess to his crush?” Kokichi interrupts. “You must be so happy! Or did Akamatsu-chan reject you? That’s so rude!”

“None of those things happened,” Shuuichi says, and he imagines beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. Kokichi doesn’t break eye contact.

“Akamatsu-chan _accepted_? Does this mean Saihara-chan finally has a girlfriend?” Kokichi winks at him. “’Cause if you need some tips and tricks, I’m your guy!”

“N-no!” Shuuichi stutters. “I-I mean, Akamatsu-san isn’t my—we’re not—I don’t have a girlfriend.” He had no idea how he manages to stay coherent. Kokichi isn’t exactly an easy person to talk to, and trying to tell him he likes him as something more than friends is being made more than difficult by none other than Kokichi himself. Sometimes Shuuichi believes Kokichi’s life goals include complicating everyone’s lives unnecessarily, including his own.

“Then why did you confess to her?” Kokichi tilts his head.

“I didn’t!” He flushes after his outburst, and Kokichi grins.

“I knew that! That was a lie, of course!”

Shuuichi half considers throwing in the towel and trying again later, when it’s somewhat easier to talk to Kokichi (which will probably be never, let’s be real here). “I like you,” he earnestly says, and he can feel his cheeks growing hot. Kokichi’s grin freezes momentarily.

“Well, I am supremely likeable!” he says, recovering quickly. “The most likeable of them all! I like Shumai tons, too!”

Shuuichi swallows. Kokichi’s smile looks easy and relaxed, but Shuuichi hadn’t missed him being thrown off guard. “Not like that, Ouma-kun,” he says, hoping he can keep talking without stuttering. “I… really like you. And I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime?”

Kokichi stares at him, his smile slowly slipping away. “What?” he says.

“You—you don’t have to say yes!” Shuuichi hurriedly adds, feeling the creep of embarrassment coming up on him. “In fact, forget about this! I, um, I’ll see you later!”

“Only if later entails Saihara-chan buying me cake!” Kokichi calls after him.

Like a date? Shuuichi wants to ask. He doesn’t.

(It is a date.)

They’ve been a couple ever since.

Shuuichi picks up his book again, but his mind is elsewhere. Kokichi has always been a very touchy-feely guy (beside Kaito, who slaps his friends’ shoulders as if he’s trying to break records), but only when he initiates. He’ll drape himself over Shuuichi’s back while he’s reading, or in class, or during lunch. He’ll hug him, embrace him, hold onto to him so everybody knows just how much he likes Shuuichi. He’s like a giant purple koala.

On the other hand, the first time Shuuichi reached out and held Kokichi’s hand, he’d frozen, staring at their joined hands until he mumbled he had ‘promised Iruma-chan he was gonna help her with one of her inventions’, and took off as if the devil was on his heels.

If Shuuichi didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought that Kokichi was embarrassed to be seen with him – but he knows that’s not true. Kokichi wouldn’t have kissed him in front of the entire class if that was the case. He just _loves_ bragging about his ‘awesome detective boyfriend’ (Kokichi’s words), and Shuuichi actually doubts if Kokichi is even capable of being embarrassed. Unlike Shuuichi, who feels embarrassed even while watching other people embarrass themselves (whether they realize it or not).

Besides, Kokichi very clearly likes Shuuichi – he never stops talking about how much he does, and Shuuichi has no reason to doubt him, despite his frequent lies. The furthest he’s ever gone is saying ‘I don’t like Saihara-chan at all!’, adding within seconds, ‘I love him!’.

But somehow, Kokichi gets flustered whenever Shuuichi pays attention to him. When he compliments him. When he kisses him on the cheek. It’s like his brain fries and he can’t respond temporarily.

Shuuichi has been thinking about this for quite some time now – ever since they started dating, actually. He’s never quite understood Kokichi, although he wants to. It’s part of the reason why he’s so drawn to him in the first place. He knows he might be a bit of a stereotype, but Shuuichi is a detective, and he likes solving mysteries. Solving Kokichi is nothing like solving a murder or theft, however. There’s no one true answer, no single fact that’ll let him solve this riddle, because Kokichi is made of multitudes. This single part of him, the part that can’t seem to accept Shuuichi’s affection for him, is only one part of thousands. And because he wants to understand Kokichi – understand why Kokichi gets under his skin so easily, understand why he is the way he is, that Shuuichi is determined to let him know that all his small tokens of affection, of trust, they’re not a fluke. They’re not a lie.

Kokichi, on his part, refuses to say anything about his strange behavior, laughing it off when Shuuichi asks about it, or pretending he has no idea what Shuuichi is talking about. Instead of being annoyed, Shuuichi takes it as a challenge. He knows he should tackle the subject head on, because Kokichi will just talk in circles around him otherwise. “So, how much do you like me?” he asks Kokichi one night while they’re studying together. Kokichi looks affronted.

“Shuuichi sure is presumptuous, assuming I like him at all!”

“I doubt you’d hang around me so often if you didn’t,” Shuuichi points out.

“That’s just because I’m using Shuuichi for his brain,” Kokichi says, glancing at Shuuichi’s homework sheet, pretending to copy one of his answers.

“You’ve already finished your homework, Ouma-kun.”

“Have I?” Kokichi grins. “Alright, maybe I do like Shumai a teensy tiny bit. Juuuust enough that he can be my second in command at DICE, if he joins!” He leans against the table, smiling cheekily. “How much does Shumai like _me_?”

“A lot,” he easily says. “I like… your cute button nose. Your beautiful violet eyes. I like the way one of your cheeks dimples when you smile.” He smiles slightly when a blush begins to creep up from under Kokichi’s collar. “I like how you blush when someone compliments you.”

“That’s not cute at all,” Kokichi says, blush increasing. “Shuuichi is just lying.”

“You’re clever enough to know I’m not,” he retorts. “You know my tells. What do I do when I lie, Kokichi?”

“You overthink.” The answer comes easy to Kokichi, who is as good at spotting a liar as he is at rattling off lie after lie himself. “You can’t look people in the eye.”

 “Have I done any of that today, Kokichi? Am I a liar?”

If possible, Kokichi turns even redder. “No?” he mumbles, and Shuuichi smiles.

Kokichi always has an answer for everything. If he’s not talking, he’s probably coming up with witty responses to a thousand and one scenarios. Yet, he’s never taken into account that someone might tell him they like him. He can joke about it, sure. But he doesn’t take it seriously.

 “So, how is my super-duper ultra favorite detective boyfriend doing today?” Kokichi pipes up beside Shuuichi’s desk, causing Shuuichi to dramatically flail and almost lose his balance.

“Do—do you know any other detectives?” he lamely asks, and Kokichi clicks his tongue.

“Well, geez, obviously! As the Ultimate Supreme Leader, literally alllll detectives in this town are after me! I may or may not have stolen the local museum’s most prized possession!”

“I think I would’ve read that in the paper if it were true,” Shuuichi says.

“They’re just keeping it all hushed up now, Shumai! They don’t want the public to know. How awful would it be for the police department if it came out they couldn’t find a few diamonds!”

“I don’t think the local museum has diamonds.” He’s only been there once, but he distinctly remembers what they display there. “It’s an art museum, Kokichi. They only have paintings and sculptures there.”

“False!” Kokichi says cheerfully. He procures a pencil from his pocket. “They also have this!” He pulls a pen from his other pocket. “And this!” He also produces an eraser with a picture of a painting on it, a pencil sharpener, two more pencils, and a sad looking balloon with the museum’s logo on it.

“Did you get those from the gift shop?”

“I didn’t just buy them, Shumai! What did I just tell you?”

“You… nicked a pencil from the art museum?”

Kokichi puts the pen down in front of him. “Just for you, Saihara-chan!”

Shuuichi runs a hand through his hair when Kokichi walks away and falls into his own seat. His eyes briefly meet Kaito’s, who gives him a confused look. He can only shrug in response. He has no idea why Kokichi does what he does, so he can only reciprocate in kind.

If Kokichi finds an identical (but duplicate) pen in his pocket later, Shuuichi isn’t going to tell him how it ended up there.

In fact, it’s not the only thing he’ll find. In his drawer of trademark scarves, there’ll be a new one black and white scarf – just the same as the others, but with Kokichi’s name embroidered in the corner in soft purple thread.

Around the room, he’s put several post-it notes with sweet messages on them. Shuuichi is not exactly great at romantic gestures, but he knows how to be honest. Under Kokichi’s pillow, there’s a note saying, ‘Sleep well!’. On a bottle of panta he’s hidden behind the open lid of Kokichi’s laptop, he’s written, ‘Purple suits you!’. He changed his desktop picture to one of the two of them together, taken when they were out on an ice cream date. Around the room, he leaves messages behind for Kokichi to find when he isn’t there, when perhaps he needs him, or he’s thinking about Shuuichi.

It’s not exactly easy, sneaking into Kokichi’s room when he isn’t there, but Shuuichi wouldn’t be the Supreme Leader’s boyfriend if he hadn’t picked up some of his lockpicking skills along the way – with a little help from a lockpick gun, admittedly, because he isn’t _that_ good.

Locking the door behind him as he leaves is a little more difficult, though, and _lying to Kokichi_ is probably the hardest part of this entire endeavor. He feels nervous, because he knows Kokichi can see straight through him, and he has a horrible poker face

Sure enough, within thirty minutes Kokichi asks, “Are you hiding something from me, Saihara-chan?”

“No!” He slaps his hand in front of his mouth, and Kokichi raises his eyebrows. “I—I mean, no, I’m not. Really.”

“Such a convincing lie, Shumai,” Kokichi playfully says. “Alright then. If you’ve got a secret, then I’ve got to guess what it is, riiiight?” He bats his lashes, and Shuuichi tries exceptionally hard not to blurt out what he’s been doing all afternoon. “I bet that Shumai is planning something! I bet he’s planning a murder!”

“What? No!” He flushes. “Nothing like that. Just—just… let’s meet at your room around eight tonight, okay?”

“Oh? So you _are_ planning something?” Kokichi giggles. “Saihara-chan sure is being mysterious! I guess I’ll have to wait and see!”

“Uh, yeah,” Shuuichi mumbles. He can’t meet Kokichi’s eyes. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He hears Kokichi laugh again as he leaves, and for one terrifying second he worries the evidence of his afternoon project is poking out of his bag – but when he looks, it appears Kokichi is laughing just because he can.

In all honesty, his plans for tonight aren’t that elaborate. He simply wants to show Kokichi that he appreciates him. Up until now, he’s not been sure how to show it, though, because Kokichi easily evades him, or makes up excuses. But their dates are really nice. Kokichi takes the saying ‘showering someone with love’ quite literally, and Shuuichi can’t deny he likes it.

So, when he shows up at Kokichi’s door at eight pm, a DVD tucked under his arm, he’s pretty confident they’ll have a nice evening together. As soon as Kokichi opens the door, however, Kokichi reaches out his arm, and puts a sticky-note on Shuuichi’s forehead.

“What’s that for?” he asks, pulling it away so he can read it. It’s the one he left on the other side of the door earlier today, right before he left. ‘Have a nice day!’ it says, with a few x’s, and his name.

“You snuck into my room,” Kokichi says matter-of-factly.

“I learned from the best,” Shuuichi says. “Can I come in? I brought entertainment.” He shows him the DVD.

Kokichi snatches it out of his hands. “Wow, a legal drama about a _murder_. You’re so unpredictable, Shumai. I totally would’ve expected you to show up with a romcom!”

“Would you prefer that?” Shuuichi hesitantly asks. “I—I mean this one won a few awards, so I thought maybe it might be good? And it’s not straightforward, so, you might like it?”

Kokichi looks at the front of the box again. “I’ve already seen this.”

“R-really?”

He laughs. “No, I’m kidding. I haven’t seen it. I bet the detective did it, though.”

Shuuichi weakly smiles. “Um, yeah.” Kokichi grabs him by the arm and pulls him inside. Shuuichi sits down on his bed, while Kokichi grabs his laptop, and then grins at Shuuichi when he spots the bottle of panta behind it. “You’re the best, Shumai!”

“I also hid a bag of gummies in your sock drawer,” Shuuichi offers, and hastily grabs the laptop when Kokichi drops it on the bed and it nearly slides off.

“The best boyfriend ever,” Kokichi says, when he crawls on the bed beside Shuuichi, and pops the DVD into the disc drive.

Shuuichi has to admit, he was looking forward to watching the movie, but he’s far more distracted by Kokichi’s presence than he thought he’d be. With Kokichi’s cheek leaning on Shuuichi’s shoulder, strands of his hair brush against Shuuichi’s ear, and the side of his face, his quiet breathing, the hitching of his breath. During a court room scene, Kokichi slowly threads their hands together.

“Gummy?” he asks, and then holds it in front of Shuuichi’s mouth until he allows him to put the candy inside.

“I don’t really like grape gummies,” Shuuichi admits, after swallowing. “I got them for you.” He smiles slightly. “You’re the best boyfriend too, you know?”

Kokichi turns his head away, though Shuuichi can see he’s blushing again. He pushes the laptop off his lap.

“Is that a joke, Shumai?”

“Not a joke,” he promises. “I like you very much. All of you. You’re always doing things for me – taking me out on dates, and making sure I’m not left behind, and you never stop saying how _I’m_ the best boyfriend. But so are you. You might pretend you don’t care, or say that you’re lying… But I know you care. You’re smart, and funny, and I… I can’t look away when you enter the room.”

“Shumai is being stupid,” Kokichi murmurs, after burying his face in Shuuichi’s jacket, so he can’t see his expression.

Shuuichi smiles and wraps an arm around him. “Maybe I am.” He looks to his other side, where the movie hasn’t stopped playing. “Did you want to continue watching, or…?”

Kokichi yawns exaggeratedly. “Saihara-chan can tell me the ending later. You should tuck me into bed now – and tell me a good bedtime story!”

“If that’s what you want,” Shuuichi agrees. When all is said and done, however, Kokichi pretty much demands that Shuuichi stays right there, in his room, in his bed, with him. Even Shuuichi is taken aback by that; they’ve never spent the night together before, despite the fact their dorms are so close to each other.

“It’ll be fun!” Kokichi says, implying there’ll be very little sleeping (and, instead, way too much Kokichi keeping him awake because he _has to tell him this one thing he remembered, just this one thing, Shumai, then I’ll shut up!_ ) Of course that’s a lie, but… Honestly, Shuuichi doesn’t really care.

“Goodnight, Kokichi,” he whispers after they’ve turned all the lights off. His hand briefly touches the note he hid under the pillow.

“Sleep well, Shumai.”


End file.
